One girls' Chilean travel dreams (and practicing some Spanish on the way)

¡Los choques culturales!

Here are some ‘Chileanismos’ I have found out about that would be a bit of a culture shock for me!

La Comida

¡Esta foto me hace tener hambre!

The Chilean food culture is slightly different to my experience of Australian food culture with big family dinners. In Chile, lunch/almuerzo is the biggest meal of the day, and most Chileans won’t eat dinner. Instead, they have ‘once’(‘eleven’) which is light meal served with tea. Apparently, ‘once’ used to be a codename for the alcohol aguardiente (…count its letters!). The story goes, men used to tell their bosses or wives they were going out for ‘once’ when they wanted a drink! And somehow the name stuck with this meal.

There is one particular part of the Chilean diet I will LOVE when I travel there – Chileans eat avocado with everything! Famously on the hotdogs in Santiago, and also just on bread for once! Aguacate en tostada es mi comida favorita en el mundo.

Las normas del bagno

En una nota práctica – take your own toilet paper around with you! And never flush your paper down the loo… The pipes are very narrow, so Chileans always throw it into a bin next to the toilet. …This will take me some time to adjust to!

Los terremotos!

Aunque pueden ser desastrosas, los terremotos son comunes en Chile

Earthquakes! Coming from Australia, an earthquake is a foreign notion to me. However, there are many recounts of the ground shaking beneath naïve tourists’ feet in Santiago! As minor earthquakes rumble, locals just stand and laugh as the buildings sway and the travellers freak out!